Spoilercast: The Last of Us

I bet Nick liked the new IP-ness of this story!

I don't know why Brad was going back and again to the subject of the game being cliché. I think it's one of the first games (certainly one of the only ones recently together with Spec Ops: The Line) that had you played as the villain of the story. By the end of the game I didn't feel like we were supposed to even sympathize with Joel. He was a psycho and the player is just the witness of his twisted mind breaking down with every step forward. I think killing him or Ellie (or something dramatic of the sort) wouldn't have made the story necessarily better.

I loved the fact that he even lies to Ellie at the end. Not because he cares about her (that's how I took it) but because he wants to calm her down so she doesn't do something dangerous that would take her away from him. After Winter and the fight against David, I think Joel finally "replaced" Sarah with Ellie in his heart and she became his daughter and his emotional crutch. He knows that losing Ellie would be like losing Sarah again and he won't be able to cope with that, so he does the only thing he can do; murder anything and everything that could potentially harm her. Not because he loves her, but because he needs her.

That, to me is a fantastic story and I think it's very different from others I've experienced recently. Great podcast, guys, I really enjoyed listening to it.

Hey guys,

Just as a initial comment I'd like to say I've been a fan for a while now but never really stuck around for long. I'd always tune in for your E3 coverage and some occasional live shows but recently I've gotten into listening to your podcasts again. Thank you for all the content you put out, you guys work hard for this site and it shows.

So Im going to spoil some things in this comment. I'm not sure why anyone would ever read the comments on a spoilercast and not expect spoilery discussion, but if you are doing something like that...turn your eyes away.

Anyways Brad kept talking about how he wishes the story was a little more GRRMy. What I mean by that is Brad kept saying things like, "I wish they'd have fucked with the audience in *insert some unexpected twist*."

The thing is that not every writer is GRRM and clearly the writers of the game had something else in mind for Joel's character. Brad wishes that Joel had died after the fall sequence, but the thing is the entire story is Joel's story. I think the game is better off because it didn't do something like that.

If we look at why it works when GRRM does something like that, it's because the story is about the universe more so than the characters. When I'm reading the ASOIAF series I find myself feeling not like I'm reading a story but more so that I'm reading about people living fictional lives. In fact in some parts of the ASOIAF series I feel it lacks a whole lot of direction.

So why is that relevant? Well I think the fact of the matter is TLOU has a story that the writers wanted to tell. It seems to me that The Last of Us is a story more told FOR the characters rather than a story that is told with characters. Does that make any sense? I always worry that it doesn't when I try to explain things like this.

I'm happy to clarify if that made no fucking sense at all, but I really hope my 'point' got across. Haha

Keep up the great work guys!

This was a terrible podcast Brads constant whining really killed it for me, I couldn't5even finish this episode.

Am I crazy? I found an audio recording where one of the doctors referred to multiple people who were immune, so I just assumed that Joel was *not* lying to Ellie at the end. I had no problem taking Ellie out of there figuring they could operate on someone older. I have listened to multiple spoilercasts and I have not heard anyone address it.

I wasn't analyzing it to death though, so maybe I missed something.

That would be nice to hear. Do you remember where you found it?